About

Overview

Organized around common rhetorical situations that occur all around us, INVENTING ARGUMENTS shows you that argument is a living process rather than a form to be modeled. Through the text's prominent focus on invention, you will learn to recognize the rhetorical elements of any argumentative situation and apply the tools of argument effectively in your own writing. The basic layers of argument are introduced in early chapters, with material arranged into increasingly sophisticated topics beginning with the most obvious or explicit layers (claims) and moving to more implied or "hidden" layers (assumptions, values, beliefs, ideology). By the time you finish Part 1, you will have a thorough understanding of argument, which you can then apply not just to the invention projects in Chapters 7-12 but also to your writing for other college courses and beyond.

Features and Benefits

INVENTING ARGUMENTS is organized according to argumentative situations instead of the elements or models of argument so that students will learn to apply the tools of argument effectively in any situation.

The chapters of Part 1 help instructors to build a syllabus that begins with the most basic tools of argument and moves quickly to more advanced layers. Reviewers have appreciated the concise and comprehensible descriptions of difficult concepts (such as ideology, warranting assumptions, values and beliefs) that help instructors to emphasize important critical-thinking outcomes.

The "Invention" section within each Part 2 chapter helps students to discover topics for their arguments; to explore a rhetorical situation; to develop a revelatory main claim that promotes a new way of thinking; to support their claims with effective evidence and appeals; and to consider counterarguments, concessions, and qualifiers to their arguments.

Part 3, "The Research Guide," offers students fundamental strategies for doing primary and secondary research, while also teaching them to view research as a tool of argument and to evaluate sources as elements within bigger institutional and social arguments.

What's New

New Chapter, "Analyzing Argument": This new chapter (Chapter 6) walks students carefully through the process of analyzing a written argument. It also gives specific strategies for analyzing visual texts and film. The chapter has three accessible sample analyses and draws from them to illustrate key moves. Because the authors teach rhetorical analysis in their own classes, they have learned the particular pitfalls and struggles that students experience with the process---for instance, the sometimes blurry line between analysis and summary or between analysis and evaluation. The chapter clearly highlights these common pitfalls to help students avoid them.

Part 1 refocused on essential skills for argument: Part 1's chapters contain less jargon and briefer explanations of general concepts and argumentative moves. To help students focus on the main concepts, the authors have eliminated jargon and condensed explanations where possible. The aim is to give students a manageable introduction to the most important elements of argument: claims, support, opposition, and hidden layers (such as assumptions and spin, an argument in disguise).

New Summary and Analysis Prompts: The assignments at the end of each brief chapter in Part 1 grow in complexity. First, students identify major elements of arguments (in Chapters 1 and 2), then summarize arguments (in Chapters 3 and 4), and then work toward analyzing arguments (in Chapters 5 and 6). In other words, the assignments walk students slowly up to formal rhetorical analysis, which is the focus of Chapter 6.

Simplified Invention Chapters (Chapters 7-12): The headings and subheadings within Chapters 7-12 are now streamlined as much as possible and include the following topics: Exploring for Topics, Inventing a Claim, Inventing Support, Arrangement, Audience and Voice, Revision.

New Readings: The third edition offers over 90 reading selections, including 18 student arguments. The four readings in each Invention chapter (Chapters 7-12) include one piece of student or commissioned writing, annotated to display the intensive thinking behind the essay.

Literary Works as Support: Because fiction, poetry, and drama are often used in formal, and even popular, argumentative essays, the authors now address this strategy in the support sections of the Invention chapters (7-12). Therein, they show students how to use literature as passing or extended allusions. A thorough discussion about literature as a form of argumentative support is also featured in Chapter 3.

Learning Resource Bundles

Choose the textbook packaged with the resources that best meet your course and student needs.
Contact your Learning Consultant for more information.

Bundle: Text + Resource Center for Argument Printed Access Card

ISBN-10: 1133424465 | ISBN-13: 9781133424468

List Price = $176.95
| CengageBrain Price = $176.95

Bundle: Text + CourseReader 0-30: Argument Printed Access Card

ISBN-10: 1133424481 | ISBN-13: 9781133424482

List Price = $189.95
| CengageBrain Price = $189.95

Efficacy and Outcomes

Reviews

"Every time I get a review copy of a new composition text in the mail, I find myself comparing it to INVENTING ARGUMENTS. They all come up short. INVENTING ARGUMENTS has everything I need in one book."

— Susan Shibe Davis, Arizona State University

"This is one of the most student-friendly texts on argument. The arrangement of chapters, focus on specific writing projects and the discussion of the nuts and bolts of drafting an argument paper responds to the way students ask their questions."

— Mary Ann Nagler, Oakland Community College

"I think the writing and workshop activities are well crafted. The questions posed to students in the exercises sound like questions I might ask in class."

— Gregory Harold, Duquesne University

Supplements

All supplements have been updated in coordination with the main title. Select the main title's "About" tab, then select "What's New" for updates specific to title's edition.

For more information about these supplements, or to obtain them, contact your Learning Consultant.

Instructor Supplements

Organized around common rhetorical situations that occur all around us, INVENTING ARGUMENTS shows you that argument is a living process rather than a form to be modeled. Through the text's prominent focus on invention, you will learn to recognize the rhetorical elements of any argumentative situation and apply the tools of argument effectively in your own writing. The basic layers of argument are introduced in early chapters, with material arranged into increasingly sophisticated topics beginning with the most obvious or explicit layers (claims) and moving to more implied or "hidden" layers (assumptions, values, beliefs, ideology). By the time you finish Part 1, you will have a thorough understanding of argument, which you can then apply not just to the invention projects in Chapters 7-12 but also to your writing for other college courses and beyond.

INVENTING ARGUMENTS is available as an eBook! Now students can do all of their reading online or use the true-to-page eBook as a handy reference while they're completing other coursework. The eBook includes the full text of the print version with user-friendly navigation, search, and highlighting tools. (Access card/code required.)

The STUDENT COURSE GUIDE FOR THE WRITER'S ODYSSEY, Third Edition, is for exclusive use with the Dallas TeleLearning course, The Writer's Odyssey. An integral component to the course, the Student Course Guide acts as a bridge between the two other resources that make up the course: The Writer's Odyssey video series and the INVENTING ARGUMENTS 3E text. Each chapter in the guide outlines the lesson goals and objectives, assignments from the text (including an argument handbook and a research guide) and enrichment activities that assist students as they write.

Student Supplements

Organized around common rhetorical situations that occur all around us, INVENTING ARGUMENTS shows you that argument is a living process rather than a form to be modeled. Through the text's prominent focus on invention, you will learn to recognize the rhetorical elements of any argumentative situation and apply the tools of argument effectively in your own writing. The basic layers of argument are introduced in early chapters, with material arranged into increasingly sophisticated topics beginning with the most obvious or explicit layers (claims) and moving to more implied or "hidden" layers (assumptions, values, beliefs, ideology). By the time you finish Part 1, you will have a thorough understanding of argument, which you can then apply not just to the invention projects in Chapters 7-12 but also to your writing for other college courses and beyond.

INVENTING ARGUMENTS is available as an eBook! Now students can do all of their reading online or use the true-to-page eBook as a handy reference while they're completing other coursework. The eBook includes the full text of the print version with user-friendly navigation, search, and highlighting tools. (Access card/code required.)

The STUDENT COURSE GUIDE FOR THE WRITER'S ODYSSEY, Third Edition, is for exclusive use with the Dallas TeleLearning course, The Writer's Odyssey. An integral component to the course, the Student Course Guide acts as a bridge between the two other resources that make up the course: The Writer's Odyssey video series and the INVENTING ARGUMENTS 3E text. Each chapter in the guide outlines the lesson goals and objectives, assignments from the text (including an argument handbook and a research guide) and enrichment activities that assist students as they write.

Meet the Author

Author Bio

John Mauk

John Mauk has a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing from Bowling Green State University and a Masters in language and literature from the University of Toledo. Scholarship includes an article on critical geography and composition (COLLEGE ENGLISH, March 2003). Mauk now teaches composition and rhetoric courses at Northwestern Michigan College. In 2007, he served on the NCTE Nominating Committee.

John Mauk has a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing from Bowling Green State University and a Masters in language and literature from the University of Toledo. Scholarship includes an article on critical geography and composition (COLLEGE ENGLISH, March 2003). Mauk now teaches composition and rhetoric courses at Northwestern Michigan College. In 2007, he served on the NCTE Nominating Committee.

John Metz

John Metz has a B.A. in English from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (1983) and an M.A. in English from the University of Toledo (1985). He has taught first-year writing for over 20 years and currently teaches at Kent State University at Geauga in Twinsburg, Ohio.

John Metz has a B.A. in English from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (1983) and an M.A. in English from the University of Toledo (1985). He has taught first-year writing for over 20 years and currently teaches at Kent State University at Geauga in Twinsburg, Ohio.